Some U.S. presidents made their way to Butte

Many were on the campaign trail, a few made just a short stop. Some came by train or plane, others by motorcar.

Theodore Roosevelt was a vice presidential candidate when he came to Butte on Sept. 1, 1900. Less than a year after the November election, he would become this country’s leader as President William McKinley was assassinated on Sept. 14, 1901.

Out on the campaign trail, the commander-in-chief was back in Butte on May 27, 1903. Thousands of Butte residents lined the streets of Uptown Butte to wave as his entourage went by. Many then headed to the Columbia Gardens, so a good seat could be found before the president arrived at the family resort. Others stood and waited patiently to hear his speech from the Finlen Hotel balcony.

The following day, The Anaconda Standard reported the 26^th president “must have been deeply impressed with the warmth and the enthusiasm of his greeting.”

The reporter explained that the president had probably witnessed such enthusiasm before, and in much bigger cities, “but if ever he has been the center of masses of humanity where the measure of good-natured hospitality was greater to the square inch than yesterday it was in Butte, the convincing proofs on that score will have to be produced.” 

The 1903 stop was his third visit to the Mining City. During his speech at the Finlen, President Roosevelt shared with the crowd that he and John Willis, a Montana man, stopped in Butte around 1888.

“We had one of the best breakfasts I ever ate at a two-bit restaurant,” he recalled.

Chief executives must have had a fondness for breakfast and welcoming crowds.

President William Howard Taft was a guest of the Butte Newswriters’ Union Oct. 19, 1911, and was served up a morning feast at the Silver Bow Club. The food apparently was so good, the welcome so warm he decided to extend his visit a bit.

According to the Butte Inter Mountain, Taft rarely veered off course when it came to his schedule. The newsman noted that “at no place on his western trip has the president been received with more evidence of hospitality than at Butte, and that in no city had he shown more enjoyment of the welcome tendered.”

As for the newswriters, its members bestowed quite the gift to Taft.

“As a more lasting token than word of mouth can convey of our deep gratitude for our president’s kindness to us,” said union president Charles Degelman, “we now offer him the gift of a painting depicting a wild scene in Montana.”

The painting was by the renowned Montana artist Charles M. Russell and was titled “Roping of the Grizzly.”

This was not Taft’s first visit to Butte. He had a “heartfelt welcome” from residents on Sept. 27, 1909, too.

In between speeches, the 27^th president also made time to go underground at the Leonard Mine.

When he arrived, the Leonard had patriotic decorations wrapped around its steel headframe, along with a giant portrait of the president with a large welcome sign above it.

He also received a Butte original — a copper, gold and silver golf club with the inscription “William Howard Taft, Champion 1909-1913 and then some. Butte, Montana September 27, 1909.”

President Warren G. Harding was given a gift he couldn’t take back to Washington, D.C., even if he wanted to. When the 29^th president came to Butte on June 29, 1923, a nearby highway had been named in his honor — Harding Way.

He did get a somewhat smaller version to take home — a sepia-toned photograph by L.P. Meyers encased in a 97-pound copper frame with silver corners.

During the visit, he and his wife, Florence, toured a number of mines, including the Mountain View Mine and the Leonard Mine, leading the nation’s chief executive to call Butte “the copper capital of all creation.”

Harding then headed to Clark Park, where thousands were awaiting his arrival to honor local Boy Scouts.

The park was filled to capacity and the expanded speech he had planned went the wayside. After honoring the Scouts, he told the crowd — “I shall always remember the good people of Butte … The fame of their hospitality has spread far and wide over the land.”

While visiting the mines was doable, oddly enough, Secret Service personnel would not allow the president to visit his namesake highway.

“Perhaps long after I have left public office, I hope to come out here to Butte and see this wonderful mountain drive that you have done me the honor to name after me,” he told the crowd at Clark Park.

That, of course, did not happen.

Five weeks later, President Harding suffered a fatal heart attack while in San Francisco. He was 57 years old.

Herbert Hoover was president from 1929 to 1933.

His first visit to Butte was while he was serving as Secretary of Commerce during President Harding’s term. In fact, he was part of Harding’s presidential party during his 1923 Butte visit.

Sixteen years later, with the presidency behind him, Hoover would be back in Butte, albeit briefly.

On his way to Helena to speak at a statewide Republican conference, the 31^st president stopped in Butte, but never left the airport. He didn’t have much to say but was reportedly “brimming over with good fellowship.”

Distant cousins they may have been, but when it came to Butte, the two Roosevelt men — Theodore and Franklin — shared a common bond.

Both men visited the Mining City at least three times.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the assistant Secretary of the Navy when he stopped by the Mining City on April 24, 1914. His visit warranted a brief story on the inside pages of The Anaconda Standard.

That was not the case on his subsequent visits of Aug. 18, 1920, when he was a vice presidential candidate and during his campaign for the presidency on Sept. 19, 1932. Both visits were front-page news.

The 1920 visit concluded with a speech on the steps of the Butte courthouse. The Butte Miner noted that the VP nominee “made a most favorable impression upon Butte and left hundreds of warm friends behind when he sped upon his way.”

That favorable impression didn’t help during election time, as the Democratic presidential nominee James Cox lost to Harding.

Twelve years later, a parade in Uptown Butte was held for Roosevelt and he would again stand on the steps of the Butte courthouse to give a speech. While the crowd was quite large, residents were a bit reticent.

“Democratic candidate fails to excite Butte during parade uptown” was reported by the Butte Daily Post.

Roosevelt would go on to win that election and held that position until his death on April 12, 1945.

President Harry Truman has the distinction of being the only commander in chief to have visited Butte at least four times.

The esteemed politician was in Butte Oct. 20, 1944 as FDR’s running mate.

World War II was still raging and the vice presidential candidate let his audience know he was well aware of Butte’s contributions to the war effort.

“We have needed tremendous quantities of copper and you have done the hard work necessary to produce that copper,” he told the crowd.

Butte must have impressed him, so much so that back in the nation’s capital, he and some of his constituents who were with him during the 1944 visit started the Hard Rock Club, in honor of Butte’s miners.

Next visit was June 8, 1948, and about 40,000 Butte residents lined the parade route to greet President Truman, who was ready for a “richest hill” tour.

The crowd, again, did not disappoint him. The president told a Montana Standard reporter that Butte gave him the best reception.

A White House correspondent, Douglas B. Cornell, concurred. He described the reception as “the biggest crowd the President has attracted in the Far West … everybody’s showed up here, all right — even the Republicans.”

More than eight years later, the former president again came to Butte, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson. His efforts were in vain, as Dwight D. Eisenhower would be reelected.

Traveling aboard a special 18-car train, “General Ike” Eisenhower was out campaigning when he, along with his wife, Mamie, made a whistle stop in Butte on Oct. 5, 1952.

A large crowd gathered to greet the train, which arrived at the Northern Pacific Depot. On hand was a club called the Young Republicans, along with a band, ready to give a “snappy march number.”

“Time for a Change” was one large sign at the station. The train had one of its own — “Eisenhower Special — Look Ahead Neighbor.”

Next up was Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who had aspirations to become the next president.

Butte was the only Montana city Kennedy, who was traveling with his wife, Jacqueline, visited on this trip March 8, 1959. Invited by the Montana State Democratic Central Committee, he spoke before a crowd in the Finlen Hotel’s Silver Bow Ballroom.

Kennedy would go on to win the presidential election and become the first Irish Catholic to do so.

Just days after his assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, the Butte School Board decided, as a “lasting memorial,” to change the name of the Big Butte School to the John F. Kennedy School.

“His leadership, wit, charm and vigor were appreciated here,” wrote The Montana Standard editorial editor, “perhaps more than in many communities, because they epitomize that the hardy Butte breed admires.”

Air Force One landed at the Bert Mooney Airport on Oct. 12, 1964. Inside was the 36^th president, Lyndon B. Johnson.

His welcome was described as “rip-roaring.” It was estimated that more than 46,000 people greeted President Johnson, whether at the airport, en route to the Butte Civic Center, or in the facility itself.

He told the estimated 12,000 people inside — “My grandfather once drove cattle up here from Texas — but he went back. He said it was too cold for him. There’s nothing cold about your welcome here today. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Eighteen years before being elected, President Richard M. Nixon gave a speech, “What’s Ahead for America?” at the Finlen’s Silver Bow Ballroom.

It was certainly not communism, which was also a central theme in his talk. Following his speech, he encouraged questions from the audience and “in a lively session answered as many of them as time would permit.”

The vice president during the Eisenhower era, he lost to JFK in the 1960 election. Eight years later, he was president. Less than two years into his second term and with impeachment proceedings on the horizon, Nixon would become the first U.S. president to resign from office.

Former President Gerald Ford was flown to Butte on a Montana Power jet on May 8, 1980.

Like Johnson, the 38^th president gave a speech at the Butte Civic Center. His audience, however, was not just MPC shareholders, but residents of Butte and outlying towns.

The audience of an estimated 3,500 people gave the former president two standing ovations during his 40-minute speech.

While Ford’s visit was brief, he did manage to leave with a couple of parting gifts for his Palm Beach, California home — two Montana bookends and a painting of Butte by local artist Irene Muir.

It may have been April Fools’ Day 2008, but President Bill Clinton wasn’t foolin’ anyone as he campaigned across Montana for his wife, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

Although four hours late, residents still waited inside the Ross Richardson Memorial Gym at Butte High School to hear his speech.

“I’m glad to be here,” he told the crowd of 1,000, “because it’s the hometown of Pat Williams and Evel Knievel.”

Last but not least, days later, on April 5, two presidential hopefuls, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were guests at the Montana Democratic Convention at the Butte Civic Center.

The future President Obama received an estimated 70 standing ovations during his speech.

“If you in Montana can stand up and fight for me,” he said to the capacity crowd, “we will win not just the nomination, but we will win the general election.”

The Democrat must have liked Butte, because he was back just in time for the Fourth of July festivities. This time, though, he was the Democratic presidential candidate.

At an outdoor picnic up at Montana Tech, he told a crowd, “We are going to change this country, and we are going to change this world.”

Obama, of course, would go on to win the election. He would serve two terms as the 44^th president, but more importantly, become the first African-American to lead this country.